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The last para more or less defines AIIBs launch and start-up in 2016. It's too early to judge AIIB - even if there are comments below which reflect otherwise.
I recall when World Bank was run by ex-GM boss/ex-US Defense Sec who administered Viet Nam War under Johnson. IBRD policy papers/destination/status was styled by color of its printed page. As a visitor, you knew exactly on what floor the damn thing was stuck - by the color of the page....
AIIB will surely not follow the bureaucratic inaptitude of IBRD. It will have to surpass both the quality and quantity of its deliverables, as bankable projects.
Success will breed its own success and credibility.

Is on record for stating that of the every toupee earmarked for development projects only 13% reached the target. Given the slew of corruption cases and embezzlement of public funds in trillions of Indian currency since then by its political class itself - China stands acutely challenged by its BRICS partners. Of which the Indians are both brazen, medieval and thick-skinned to boot - as their typical cultural attribute while remaining rank criminals even by their own laws!

If you want to see real corruption and general bad governance, read the history of any country that is now rich and industrialized. England had its "pocket boroughs". The U.S. had George Washington's expense accounts. Corruption is one of the causes of poverty, sure. But it is also caused by poverty. Only rich countries can afford to pay civil servants at rates that make it possible to get it under some sort of control.

Just as today's rich countries did, China, India, and other poor countries that are now industrializing will see corruption levels fall as they get richer.

While the new pragmatism of the AIIB is well articulated in its emphasis on institutionalized culture of efficiency-transparency-accountability-zero corruption - this sets it up against the rather contrary norms, institutionalized corruption that flourishes amidst it's fetid societal culture of corruption and all that it entails within its BRICS member states. While Russia is a second-world power that is hamstrung by corruption and all that it entails, it's southern neighbour India is a developing state or a 3rd world country that is brazenly dysfunctional; celebrates debauchery and institutionalized corruption and given what they entail - a patent criminal cultural socialuzation that also render it's protagonists as especially thick-skinned nationalist goons if not the ordinary corrupt populace. It's certain regions (UP-Bihar-Jharkhand in particular) mark those dysfunctional state attributes in brazen manners while carrying their various labels and co-habit a world better described as the medieval trash one associates with the Taleban regions of Af-Pak that gave the world a Malala Yousoufzai. Akin to China's own distinctive problem area like the Uighurs - the Hindostanis of these regions mark the Indian state (or seek to do so) as much as their counterparts in India's multi-ethnic diversity. Contrary to the culture and value-systems that the AIIB posits as it's primary credentials - the Indians posit and often brazenly so - the anti-culture. While an institutionalized culture of fetid corruption and theft mark the ordinary Indian value-system - it posits a serious challenge to even the other concerns shared by China. Viz fighting global terrorism. India is a cooking pot for the global trash in the strategic sense that also form the global crime-terror networks. Between such starkly opposed realities and the Chinese determination to not merely pay lip service to its aims and objectives of the AIIB as well as its broader development plans - (I do not have a good idea of Brazil - it's another key BRICS partner although South Africa comes across as better off than India in sharing the aims of the AIIB, etc. as well as the necessary realities although much behind China in addressing it's societal pitfalls that lend to structural characterstics. India is made more complex by its largely illiterate and medieval peasant based populace. Combining that with what are it's cultural attributes viz a viz corruption (and all that it entails), China seems challenged first and foremost by its BRICS members than others. In their rank opposition to the aims and objectives of the AIIB as noted by the author. Apart the fetid swamp of corruption and instances of that - India's one modern Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi

Chinese like to talk very big, for instance like Mao; they like to pretend everything is all right with China, for instance like Mao; they are always brawling at each other as the Chinese writer Yu Hua said. Prof. Jeffrey Frankel/China's Stock Market Red Herring, Jan. 19, poject-syndicate, tells where the real problems of Chinese economy are. AIIB can be best understood under that light.
Some Japanese media reported, thought not officially confirmed, that the Chinese government has proposed swapping of the currencies to Japan. Abe and Xi met last year (or was it two years ago?). It was agreed between the two governments how the meeting was arranged would not be made public. Of course the People Daily reported that Abe beseeched for it.
I (Michi) posted a comment titled It Is Not China's Fault, Nov. 16, 2015, on Michael Pillsbury/ The Hundred Year Marathon, amazon usa. I (森山) also made a comment on Shannon Tiezzi/ China's 1 Percent Owns 1/3 of Wealth, the diplomat. com. I shall be glad if anyone reads them as I am sure they will not fail to be interesting.

As the comments below said and I agree, the economic aids and penetration from the West to Africa and Asia leave very much to be desired.

With four decades of global business development and as a Greek American (Hellene) of Grandparents who came to America and forged their Life away from the villages of southern Greece (Peloponnese) understanding that education was certainly a priority as well as promoting family values and certainly acquiring a taste for the Greek language and attending the Greek Orthodox Church every Sunday here in Boston, working still today 24x7 given the Hellenic and American work ethic and today engaged in casino development financing in Cambodia, the continued though certainly smaller quantity of oil by clients being exported into China given a slower than expected economy and seeing the west and the Middle East in disarray especially given this divisive and inept White House and a Republican party in America allowing good 'ol Ms. Hillary and Billy Boy to continue to prostitute American and Judeo-Christian values to as some say, line the coffers of the Clinton Foundation....

While this week I push to secure a capable and enlightened investor who understands "trade finance" - cargo / shipping where a client despite the downturn in business has created a niche market and will be expanding his business to an eventual 24 smaller cargo vessels whether off of Africa or in the Mediterranean where he is focused on orders to load ships and understands the value in "trade finance" / shipping and small cargo requirements like few others and I secure US$1.2 mln - US$2.1 mln in trade financing and an eventual substantial amount, the geopolitical landscape and the Middle East are eroding quickly and for those of us committed in our diligence and addressing real business despite the downward spiral in oil and other, it is truly heartening to see AIIB evolve and even with a downturn in the China economy which will only be brief, find your business "niche" and with monies flush among many investors seeking good investments in a global culture riddled with self-agenda and corruption, keep marching forward and while I address "patented wave technology" off of Cape Verde or off Indonesia with clients or develop business in the oil industry and among sovereign nations encouraging them to utilize - aerostats - for surveillance of offshore rigs or border control and the list continues for after all, having forty + years and a tenacity unmatched by most, the prerequisite to a commitment in diligence to attain achievement is found less and less among business folks today and in essence when I read the mission statement basically that AIIB:

AIIB to help its members to modernize roads, rails, and ports; enhance access to electricity; expand telecommunications services; advance urban planning; and provide clean water and sanitation services. We will do it well. We will do it right. And we will do it collaboratively, as a reliable and complementary development partner.
The AIIB’s founding members have a clear management vision: We will set a clear and high bar for organizational performance and governance, by upholding openness, transparency, accountability, and independence as its core institutional principles.

It is obvious that such efforts by those with such high standards and the realization that crumbling infrastructure must be addressed and promotes employment is much applauded here at Tashtego Oil LLC/Tashtego Strategic Global Partners LLC/chris.tingus@gmail.com as this is what real priority and astute business seeks to promote in a 2016 global environment whereby cutting edge technology affords an expedient solution to many of our local, regional and global challenges, yet until humanity puts down its sword and realizes the many more familiarities to one another in the basics of Life - primarily family values and well being - and not to suggest we must embrace one another, yet certainly work in close collaborative effort with many of us committed to bringing the one billion -- imagine one billion fellow humans an access to a cup of clean water -

Kudos to those in pledge to forging the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and an eventual dominance in using the yuan as an international currency for the west - despite my applause as well to the innovators and to technology development and particular;y in the United States, our beloved Republic where unfortunately transparency and a spending spree among politicians have left the west bankrupt -

One can only agree that the AIIB is being developed at a very good time, not just for Asia but for all of the world. It has been encouraging to see the applications for membership (despite US resistance) from many major western countries as a sign of the overall potential.
One area which could be of considerable benefit to all elements of trade and investment would be a stable exchange rate format, something that is under great stress in many parts of the world.
http://wsd.rtpay.com/ACU.aspx shows a format we have been following since the start of 2014, based on the AIIB Asian currencies. The big spreads from the underlying US dollar rates shows how some countries would benefit from using a melded rate, in particular. The ability for contracts to be settled in ACUs, while still being convertible to fiat currencies, can provide a far better model for ongoing trade than the failed model of the euro.
There is no doubt the world is entering a dangerous time, not least in the emerging markets where the lowering of oil prices (and for other commodities) is disrupting the overall marketplace. While the AIIB cannot answer every problem, it is the best hope I see for a structured support for many countries.

It's good to see world institutions that are not controlled or dominated by the 'west' starting to emerge. For far too long, the assumption has been that the fundamental reason that the established rich countries are rich is because they have better customs or norms of behaviour or something like that. They then regard themselves as the only countries fit to control institutions like the world bank.

I believe that the fundamental reason that some countries are richer than others is industrial clustering. Rich countries are rich only because they were fortunate enough to develop industrial clusters early, and those clusters keep attracting more activity for many reasons. Poor countries are poor because they got left out when the clusters formed, not because of some sort of collective character flaw. It follows that people from poor countries are just as fit to govern world institutions as those from rich ones.

The AIIB is perhaps the best that happened to Asia as the new year unfolds. People of Asia needs much more innovation and creativity than what their leaders could provide from within their sovereign pigeonholes. While Europe marched ahead in the twentieth century with a borderless Europe, we, in Asia, busy in settling scores not to talk about fences and shootings that remained a daily occurrence in many of our borders. So, with AIIB, we hope to see a new Asia that is connected, empowered and hopefully united too. AIIB should remain to Asian's like Europe remained to the Europeans. So, the policy of recruitment irrespective of nationality may be a welcome beginning but there should be a mechanism for geographical balance so that Asian could truly feel a part of it. All the best for AIIB and Mr.Jin Liqun's dream.